Thursday, September 6, 2012

Update from O'Neill Lab on Wolbachia / Eliminate Dengue Project

This news just in from the Eliminate Dengue project in Australia (NPR story and audio). As Ive tweeted and blogged about many times, Scott O'Neill's lab has been leading a Gates Foundation funded effort to introduce Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into Australian suburbs in the fight to replace uninfected mosquitoes that are competent to transmit dengue virus with Wolbachia-infected ones that are incompetent to harbor and transmit dengue virus. The science has been remarkably fruitful and the project's success appears to be positioning the program to do releases in other countries, such as Thailand and Brazil. Here we get an update letter from the Team. The key updates are:

Release 2: A second trial is ongoing to test if wMelPop Wolbachia can do the same as wMel. The difference between the two strains is that while wMelPop has stronger inhibition of Dengue virus growth in mosquitoes, it can not invade mosquito populations as efficiently as wMel.

Release 3: Mysterious - they are currently working with a 3rd strain that combines the best of wMel and wMelPop. I have not heard about this yet in the literature but it is tantalizing.

If you live in Australia, the Project needs you. Home owners in Edge Hill, Cairns North, Whitfield, Parramatta Park, Manunda, Westcourt, and Stratford, Australia should contact 1-800-811-054.

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Biography

Seth
Bordenstein, Ph.D., is a biologist in the Departments of Biological
Sciences and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt
University (lab website) and the founding director of the Vanderbilt Microbiome
Initiative and worldwide science education program Discover the Microbes
Within! The Wolbachia Project (website, facebook). His laboratory studies the functional,
evolutionary and genetic principles that shape symbiotic interactions
between animals, microbes, and viruses as well as the major consequences
and applications of these symbioses to humans. The lab employs
hypothesis-driven approaches to study intimate (between hosts and
obligate intracellular bacteria) symbioses that deeply impact animal
reproduction and vector control as well as facultative (between
free-living organisms) symbioses that shape genome and species evolution
across the tree of life. Since animals regularly thwart or embrace the
microscopic world in both intimate and facultative symbioses, the
evolutionary history of animals is generally impacted by microbial
ecology. Bordenstein’s research and science education activities have
been highlighted in various popular science media including a
documentary on bacterial symbiosis, the New York Times, National
Geographic, Discover Magazine, Public Broadcasting Service, Scientific
American, and BBC Radio.